Tapenade \ˌtä-pə-ˈnäd\

So ~ December’s Improv Cooking Challenge, hosted by Lesa, simply called for RED & GREEN ingredients. Because of the busy-ness of this season, I was sorely tempted to make some crisped rice squares topped with red & green candies/sprinkles! However, I decided to “upgrade” and share the recipe for my fellas’ favorite condiment.

The lovely thing about tapenades is their versatility & adaptability to ingredients on hand. In dark, desperate days my pantry has been raided for a can of black olives, a little granulated garlic, olive oil and a handful of green olives sent through the chopper.

Today, however, we’re going to plan ahead and be a little more selective with the components of our dish. Here are the basic ingredients:

• 1/4 lb. each of kalamata, stuffed green & plain ol’ black olives - rough chopped
• scant 1/2 cup capers
• 1 fresh red pepper (smoking optional, of course & jarred are easier to use) 
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1 Tablespoon chopped fresh lemon thyme
• 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh basil

There were a few remaining red peppers hanging about my fall-depleted garden. We sliced then tossed one of those on the smoker for a bit, along with a large garlic clove. And, I found some basil and lemon thyme in my patio pots. The remaining ingredients we gleaned from Sprouts!And since you can’t consume tapenade usually is not consumed straight out of the jar, I made some crostini from gluten free baguettes I baked off of this bread recipe.

(BTW -- tapenade is also a good gift for olive lovers…)

Need more RED & GREEN recipe ideas? Check out my friends’ creations at these links:

An InLinkz Link-up

Homemade Pesto Chicken Sausage–Stuffed Mushrooms

What an awesome challenge theme this month: sausage & mushrooms! (Although, my two younger sons were not quite as excited – they dislike  hate  abhor avoid anything even slightly mushroom-related…)

We figured we would buy our favorite sausage from Sprouts, and then find something mushroom-y to do with it. Probably hunt down some poor defenseless portobellos & stuff 'em. Same ol' same ol'...

"Nothing to see here folks; move along, move along!"

Then I had the brilliant idea that I'd been wanting to make my own sausage (since I'd been trolling some charcuterie sites which had made me drool  whetted my appetite piqued my interest...)

So I ground five pounds of chicken. (It's best to use the skin & fat for flavor, but I only had boneless/skinless.)

I had about a pound of crimini mushrooms that we stemmed, brushed with olive oil, then stuffed with the fresh sausage.

(The sliced potatoes lining the pan? those are the sausage foundations for the antimushroomites...)

 We baked them in a 375° oven until the probe read 175° -- which was about 30 - 45 minutes. The meat was sizzling and turning a nice brown.

I cannot tell you how amazing these tasted! (But, we might or might not have taken another pound of the sausage destined for the freezer and mixed the chopped mushroom stems in and roasted them in muffin cups and devoured them on the spot; barely waiting for them to cool...)

Looking for more Sausage & Mushroom recipes? Look no further than the links below...

An InLinkz Link-up

…were supposed to be crostinis…

but I was too forgetful lazy rushed famished to take the time to toast my baguette slices!  February’s Improv Cooking Challenge theme chosen by our leader Kristen was “Bread and Butter.” Sounds like a simple task, unless bread is your most favorite food group in all the world but now you’re gluten free and you haven’t found a bread recipe you can accept as a favorable substitute for your most favorite food group in all the world…I’ve long been a fan of Bob’s Red Mill products. Most of the flours and starches I buy are from his extensive line. I even use the many gluten free recipes on the site. I decided this was the time to try his bread mix.So glad I did! The bread was quite delicious & had a very nice texture. (thought I had taken a pic of the 2 baguettes, sorry… was in too much of a hurry to taste before dark!)So… that brings us to the recipe part of this post – my Sweet Red Wine Compound Butter. You will love me, forever! It is soooooo simple, but it tastes like a million dollars. It’s so easy a cave man could do it (if he knew how to milk a cow or stomp grapes) but makes the carnivore’s dream steak taste even dreamier! Beurre composé is what the French call this “finishing butter”.Serendipitously, I found this most delicious sweet red on sale at my local Sprouts. I poured a cup of it into my saucepan. (I might or might not have had a glass while cooking to ensure the flavor appropriate…)I stirred in a tablespoon each of freshly cracked pepper and minced garlic. Then I left the saucepan on a very low simmer for about an hour. It. smelled. incredible. the. entire. time.After the reduction cooled completely, it was scraped into the mixing bowl of room temperature butter. (You may use unsalted butter, but then you’d have to add a pinch of salt.) I beat the mixture until everybody was all happy together.I divided it and made two rolls. I wrapped them with plastic cling and stuck them in the freezer.You should stop reading here if you’re hungry. Just take my recipe and go your way.
But if you wish to see how I served up my bread & butter, keep reading to the end…Bread & butter might be a meal for some, but not for my household of carnivores!
Here are my baguette slices – fresh from the oven…

We top that with a bit of sliced mushrooms & onions, sautéed with a touch of our compound butter.Do you see what I did there?Yes, that is grilled and thinly sliced New York strip!And yes, I am going to eat it right before your eyes…close-up!Playing with the camera means the steak is now too cool to melt the butter; so this platter gets a quick flash under the broiler.

We loved this butter! So far we’ve tried it out on baked potatoes and then on scrambled eggs. No disappointments so far…

If you’d like to see some more bread & butter recipes, check out these links: